Integrated circuits find application in many of today's consumer electronics, such as cell phones, video cameras, portable music players, printers, computers, etc. Integrated circuits may include a combination of active devices, passive devices and their interconnections.
As the technology node within integrated circuit systems continues to shrink, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to isolate these structures from one another. A common isolation technology employed within semiconductor manufacturing is the formation of a shallow trench isolation (STI) between adjacent active regions. Typically, STI structures are formed by etching a shallow trench between adjacent active regions and then depositing a dielectric film within the trench. Unfortunately, current STI manufacturing techniques, such as trench lithography printing, trench etching and trench gap fill, are nearing their process limitations for sub 65 nanometer devices.
Additionally, as other semiconductor manufacturing techniques near their process limitations for sub 65 nanometer manufacturing, it is becoming increasingly important to optimize current device design. For example, substrate orientation within an integrated circuit can be manipulated to optimize carrier mobility within a channel by utilizing a <110> channel orientation for a p-channel transistor and a <100> channel orientation for an n-channel transistor. Unfortunately, most semiconductor manufacturing techniques use a single orientation substrate that cannot be optimized to take advantage of the effect that different substrate orientations can have on different devices.
Thus, a need still remains for a reliable integrated circuit system and method of fabrication, wherein the integrated circuit system can be electrically isolated and optimized for device performance. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, increasing consumer expectations, and diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. Moreover, the ever-increasing need to save costs, improve efficiencies, and meet such competitive pressures adds even greater urgency to the critical necessity that answers be found to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.